“Bob is no longer going to be on Apple’s executive team, but will remain at Apple working on special projects reporting to [CEO] Tim [Cook],” company spokesman Steve Dowling told AllThingsD. He declined any further explanation, refusing to comment on the reasons behind Mansfield’s surprising move, whether he remains Apple’s SVP of Technologies or whether the company plans to appoint a new executive to that role.

Bizarre.

gjgustav

He wanted to retire years ago. “Special Projects” still lets Apple have his expertise, but not at full time requirements like an executive position demands. It’s semi-retirement.

matthewmaurice

Exactly, this is basically a geek who doesn’t want to hang up his compiler but also doesn’t want to deal with all the crap that happens at Exec level. In 3 years they’ll call him “Engineer Emeritus” or something.

ProductiveMonk

Hardware guys don’t use compilers 😉

dr.no

either it is standard procedure for he is leaving next year so no need for him to be involved in future decisions. or he effed up his area of responsibility Chips and Wireless and blame can’t be shifted to Scott Forestall this time.

tylernol

not really bizarre, he wanted to retire, he’s probably going to retire. And they have people a bit more seasoned now to cover his former responsibilities.

Mother Hydra

I think this is a calculated move by Bob to get back more of his personal time, and why not?

lucascott

Or perhaps not bizarre.

He was going to retire last year and it seems Tim asked him to stick around a little longer. Possibly to oversee this transition to the new corp structure.

That is likely over so know he’s shifting over to a consulting type position, one that may have always been in the cards. He might never have been retiring from Apple but just from being an executive

Herding_sheep

You can’t really force a person as bright (and rich) as Bob to do the things he does. His heart hasn’t been fully committed for a while now, he’s wanted to retire for a long time. So let him, maybe someone else would do a better job now if they are fully committed to the job. Its hard to replace someone as important as him, but hopefully Bobs been spending these months since October guiding someone to take his place eventually.

Lets not forget that Adobe’s CTO jumped over to Apple to be “VP of Technology and that he would be reporting to current hardware head Bob Mansfield”. This was after Bob had already left once and then came back as they let Forstall loose.

Special Projects like Paul Deneve (the Yvez Saint Laurent guy)… Are they creating a new division?

matthewmaurice

If anything, Apple is doing away with “divisions.” Apple has Ivey in charge of “design”, Federighi and Riccio in change of Engineering (software and hardware respectively), and then Cue in charge of internet software & services. With those guys all working together on (and personally responsible for) getting products out the door, it makes sense to have guys like Mansfield (i.e. smart, experienced, and unambitious) given some space and flexibility to chase down “what ifs” without adversely effecting ship-dates and update cycles.